Welcome to GVI's Rainforest Conservation and Community Development project blog where you can keep up to date with all the happenings and information from the Ecuadorian Amazon

Global Vision International (GVI) is a non-political, non-religious organisation, which through its alliance with over 150 project partners in over 30 countries, provides opportunities for volunteers to fill a critical void in the fields of environmental research, conservation, education and community development.

Facts and figures

Created a species list (inventory) for the Yachana Reserve reaching over 750 different species including birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and butterflies, amongst other invertebrates and it continues to grow every phase

National Scholarship Program offering scholarships to Amazon students from the Yachana Technical High School to study English, conservation and field techniques alongside GVI volunteers at our base camp. Over 60 students have participated since the start of the program, with many achieving advanced levels of English, and some even receiving scholarships to study in the US and return to Yachana as bilingual naturalist guides

In September 2008 GVI Amazon found an individual of Hyalinobatrachium iaspidiense, a rare glass frog that until recently was thought to only be endemic to the Guayana Region of Venezuela. Prior to this find it was thought to only reside in one other locality within Ecuador further north in the Succumbios region

Over 2500 hours of English and environmental lessons taught to local community schools

Share this blog

Become a fan of our blog!

The End of an Era

After over 6 years of intensive research and community development work in and around the Yachana Reserve, GVI Amazon is coming to a close. We have finished our final research project (look forward to our Road Effects paper, coming soon!) and are handing over the project to our partner, The Yachana Foundation. They will continue to maintain and monitor the reserve, using it as an hands-on science education center for students -- we're very excited to see what fabulous things this next generation of scientists find! For more detail on GVI Amazon's closure, and our accomplishments over the years, please read on...GVI Amazon Closure Statement

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

As a part of Leadership BTEC short term interns, meaning me (Kristina), Adam and Edwin, for our final task we had to create a poster presentation in Puerto Rico school (where we also teach English to the kids). We were told that we should explain to the kids what GVI is doing in the Yachana Reserve, because so far the only understanding they have of us is weird gringos walking in the forest in rain and sun, day or night. After Edwin decided to make three posters on ‘Why are rainforests important, human impact on the rainforest, what work GVI is doing and why is it important for rainforest and people’, we were allocated teams of four people with one Spanish speaker in each. Part of the challenge for us was that all presentations had to be in Spanish so the kids could understand.

Each team did an awesome job on their poster and the kids loved our mini lessons. Through role plays and games played after each poster we tried to actively involve the kids in the whole presentation to hopefully give them a better understanding of the topics we were trying to teach them. They especially seemed to enjoy our terrible pronunciation (at least some of us) of Spanish, which we all promised to work on and improve for next time.

All in all, this was an amazing introduction to which will develop into regular Environmental Education Presentations and all of us showed that we can work as an efficient and productive team!

Kristina Spicer – GVI Amazon Environmental Intern, Apr-June 2010

Taking the time to make a difference.For all our conservation efforts here in the Amazon, its extremely important that we work with the local people and empower them with the knowledge and skills to protect the rainforest. As Kristina already mentions above, the entire GVI Amazon team went down to the local community to teach the students about our research for the first time. However, conveying science and surveys to young kids is not an easy task...yet, with a bit of planning, artwork, and good fun, we were up for the challenge. Our project posters and entertaining skits covered rainforest ecology, human impacts, and our work here as GVI. An all around success, the kids had a blast and received us well. Hopefully this is a sure sign of more environmental classes to come here on the community side of things in the Amazon.

0
comments:

GVI Charitable Trust

Support education in the Amazon through the GVI Amazon Charitable Trust. Sponsored projects include environmental education for children, biodiversity monitoring for indigenous students, and youth-led reforestation programs in Amazon communities.

GVI Amazon Best Posts

Quotes from the field

"These are the voyages of the GVI Enterprise.Its continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds… To seek out new amphibian life; new civilizations… To boldly go where no man has gone before… The source of the stream!" Amy Hill, January - March 2009

"The forest is always alive; this is why it is called the Amazon and not the Amazoff" Alan Rea, January - March 2009,